Faux Cement Paint Technique

Bunnies Before

Cute little pair, aren’t they. But that pink / terracotta look was not working for me. And the grey detailing made them look dirty while the white paint was a bit too rough and spotty for my liking.

These bunnies really needed a new lease on life because their old look was old and dated. Using a bit of paint to bring something old back to life is usually the fastest and easiest way to go.

Giving something a concrete finish is not new to me. Remember my bathroom wall that I painted to look like a cement wall?

So out came the first pot of paint.

I gave them a quick allover layer of a medium grey paint as a base layerI used a Fusion Paint called Little Lamb, it was a leftover from my dining room table makeover and my spring painted pots project.

You can use any grey paint really, but I like the smoothness of Fusion Paint and the fact that it has a matte finish was kind of perfect for this.

I just quickly slapped some paint on my Easter bunnies with a medium large brush. The bunnies had quite a few crevices and harder to get to spots, so I had to work my brush in there a bit. But all in all painting both bunnies grey only took about 10 minutes.

The Fusion paint took about one cup of tea to be dry enough to handle the bunnies again.

Then they looked like this.

Not much of an improvement yet. Painted in one solid color made them look flat and boring.

So let’s give them some depth and character again.

The next step involved a tiny bit of regular old black craft paint, a small craft brush and a damp small sponge.

I worked in small increments. Painting on some black paint with the brush and working it into to fur of the bunnies a bit. And then almost immediately removed a lot of the paint with the damp sponge, blending the black at the same time.

I think this took 10 minutes per bunny but probably less. You can’t go wrong here because if you don’t like the look, you can always wet your sponge a bit more and wipe off the paint and start over.

Starting to like this look. With only two layers of paint my bunnies have been completely transformed. Their new style reminds me of the Essex Bunnies from Pottery Barn.

I could have stopped here. They already looked pretty and like made of concrete. But I wanted to add a bit more character and a bit of a weathered look.

You can find the third step that made them look all perfect and concrete like on my blog. Find the link to the post at the very bottom next to my profile picture.

And now my bunnies look gorgeous in my Spring & Easter centerpiece and I couldn’t be more happy (you can find the instructions on how to create a centerpiece like this on my blog).

This faux cement paint technique is so easy and you can use it on almost anything and give it that rustic concrete look. I suspect that after Easter I will put these bunnies outside in the garden as decorations. My hope is that they will become a bit mossy and start to look even more like the real thing. We’ll see. For now they are looking pretty and cheerful on our table in my Easter bunny arrangement.